<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<GoodreadsResponse>
	<Request>
		<authentication>false</authentication>
		    <method><![CDATA[]]></method>
	</Request>
	<review id="18025719">
    <user id="193054">
    <name><![CDATA[Rob]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/193054-rob]]></url>
  </user>
      <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <sell_flag>false</sell_flag>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[those interested in foucault, psychiatric history, western philosophy]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Mar 18 12:07:07 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Mar 18 12:16:33 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[however entitled i am to critique foucault, here goes: the man should have stayed away from arts criticism. this book, in its excavation of medical, legal, and philosophic thoughts on what it would mean to be mad from the 16th to 19th century (and how that impacts the present), is thoroughgoing and illuminating. i  am especially drawn to the evidence he provides on the relationship between &quot;madness&quot; and labor; one's ability/desire to work as a determinant of who would be confined, and the process of work as a cure for madness. it gets a bit screwy when he talks about treatments that targeted the bodily fluids, but i suppose that was a screwy point in medical history. not his fault.<br/><br/>however, he tries and fails to illuminate how the artists, writers, and philosophers of the age both depicted madness and exemplified it. at these points, foucault gives himself to whatever rhetorical flight of fancy he deems fit. everything has a double meaning that folds in on itself and negates the blah blah blah. <br/><br/>as a succinct word of advice: skip the conclusion. it's pretty unnecessary.]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18025719]]></url>
</review>

</GoodreadsResponse>